Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Four
And hello to you too…
We are a quarter of the way through 2023 already, and in conjunction with hitting 200 albums on my listening schedule, I’ve drawn up a handy little playlist featuring cuts from my favourite 25 albums from those dutifully listened to and evaluated.
And in the interest of series continuity, here are a few more words on some of the better offerings from the past fifty albums I had the pleasure to absorb.
Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Four
Afterpoem – Faten Kanaan
Kicking things off in a swoonsome fashion we have a fine blend of contemporary classical music and electronica courtesy of composer Faten Kanaan’s fifth album, one redolent with ambiguous ambience as plaintive brass, woodwind and piano arrangements find themselves adrift within ominous swathes and crashes of electronic dissonance that rewards the listener with an experience that is as romantic and calming as it is chilling and unsettling.
Avenite Void – Erika
When a producer does well to list the recording equipment and instruments used on their new album as their family and friends, you know you are in for something special, such is the case with ambient tech-house producer Erika Sherman’s second long-player, built from improvisations made during her live shows into enveloping soundscapes inspired by celestial bodies and planetary orbit paths that are as sophisticated as they are undeniably danceable.
Dance Kobina – Joe Chambers
A classy detour into multi-cultural jazz now, with the immensely prolific percussionist Joe Chambers leading his band as they navigate pieces both original and pre-existing to provide a delicious, globe-traversing audio melting pot that takes in inspiration from the Brazilian, Argentinian, and African idioms of that most bop-worthy of musical genres.
FEELING BODY EP – Nyokabi Kariuki
Kenyan composer Nyokabi Kariuki’s latest EP is about the musician’s tortuous bout with Long COVID and the effects it had on their body; needless to say, whilst knowing this informs the piece’s darker moments with a more tangible dread, the unflinching directness with which Kariuki intones her physical and psychological trajectory doesn’t deter from their ultimate message of hope and recovery but rather makes those moments of light that much more salient.
Islands In The Sky – Death Valley Girls
Astral projection and telepathic radio waves are among the themes explored on the alternative rock quartet’s fifth album, but rest assured there is still plenty of pure unadulterated fun to be had amidst the psychedelic miasma that they create here, not least on the rejuvenating gospel-infused thrash of “Sunday”.
Main Character – Glume
If the idea of Lana Del Rey embracing synthpop sounds like the most exciting thing in the world, you cannot go wrong with Glume’s second album, which not only trades in the same post-modern, faded Hollywood glamour and camp as her counterpart but even goes so far as namecheck her on the track “Brittany”.
Masego – Masego
The self-professed pioneer of “Trap-House-Jazz” returns with an eponymous epic of a follow-up to their 2018 debut album, and be damned if the man doesn’t deliver on such questionable, hipster-ingratiating genre-mashing with charisma and boppage to spare, as much at home navigating 808 beats as he is with his customary saxophone, portraying a different kind of lothario that actually has the talent to back up his braggadocious nature.
Radical Romantics – Fever Ray
To be honest the inclusion of Karin Dreijer’s third solo album under the Fever Ray moniker was going to be a given as soon as they released their first single last year, though at the same time it’s always effing lovely when people return to the fold and spellbind you just as indecently and brightly as they did before, right?
Red Moon In Venus – Kali Uchis
As sultrily imperious as ever, Kali Uchis doubles down on the soul for album number three, incorporating doo-wop, nu-soul, alternative hip hop and bossa nova into an intoxicating concoction that is truly irresistible, at the very least establishing them as one of the most consistently beguiling singers of the current pop lexicon.
UK GRIM – Sleaford Mods
And finally a fine rambunctious display of present-day frustration from the UK’s favourite post-punk duo, whose popularity only seems to be ascending further into irrefutability, what with their twelfth album becoming their first Top 3 entry and hopefully encouraging these irascible noiseniks to keep holding the world to account with their infectious energy.
And there you have it, another slew of recommendations from the year 2023. Should there be anything missing from this list according to your standards, please let me know in the comments below; do bear in mind though, my upcoming roster boasts almost 70 albums still to listen to, so it may take some time getting through everything.
I’m only one music nerd, after all!
In any event, until next time, xxxo
